Like the Rangers of Yesteryear

The Texas Rangers looked like the Rangers of old tonight. What I wouldn’t give for that to be a compliment. In their 9-7 loss at the hands of the LAA Angels, Texas had a lot of homeruns and bad starting pitching, all wrapped up by the bullpen blowing a late lead…yep, just like the Rangers we’ve known for so long.

Texas jumped out to an early lead, courtesy of a three-run second inning homer by Matt Stairs. But, the Angels quickly chipped away at the lead, scoring two runs in the top of the third inning. It would be the last full inning that starter Vicente Padilla pitched. He got ejected in the middle of a four-run third inning by the Angels, highlighted by a three-run homer by none other than designated Ranger killer Vladimir Guerrero. Padilla plunked Guerrero in the third, then got a warning for throwing inside to him again in the fourth. One batter after he surrendered the homerun to Vlad, Padilla was ejected for hitting Juan Rivera.

Padilla threw 81 pitches through 3.2 innings en route to surrendering six earned runs on eight hits. Despite numerous run-ins for hitting batters this season, this marked the first time Padilla has actually been ejected. It was the second ejection of a Rangers pitcher in just over a week

The bullpen, namely Josh Rupe, managed to put up a couple of scoreless frames, giving the Rangers the chance to regain the lead on a seventh-inning Rod Barajas homer.

But, with a one-run cushion, Wes Littleton fell apart in his second inning of work, giving up three runs. You know the rest of the story. Scot Shields in the eighth. Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth. Goodnight, thanks for coming, see you tomorrow.

Ervin Santana, who started for the Angels, wasn’t good. But he was good enough. He got a no-decision after allowing six earned runs in five innings. Hector Carrasco pitched the seventh inning for the win, and Rodriguez got the save.

The loss tonight broke a five game winning streak by the Rangers and dropped them back into third place, one game behind the Angels and 6.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics. Even with homeruns by Stairs, Hank Blalock, Michael Young and Barajas, the Rangers lost. That news is particularly troubling for Rangers fans when you consider that this is the game they could be expected to win.

Don’t expect the same kind of offensive managerie tomorrow night against undefeated Angels pitcher Joe Saunders.

What’s defeating about losses like these is the emotional roller coaster they send you on. To be way up, and then way down, and be up again, only to finally lose, can take the wind out of a team’s sails even worse than a blowout they never really had a chance to win. Blowouts happen, but roller coaster losses like these are what really crush you. Just when it seems you’ve mustered enough offense to overcome bad pitching, the bullpen rears its ugly head again and blows it.

The Rangers do have a chance, small as it may be, to get a big victory tomorrow. If they can defeat a pitcher that has not recorded a loss this season, it would send the Rangers out on their road trip with a lot of emotional momentum. Let’s just hope Adam Eaton doesn’t duplicate his last performance against the Angels when he got ejected in the first inning for throwing behind a batter.